Death metal riff types

ITT we identify, and classify, and name death metal riff/phrase types. Other types of metal are fine too I suppose.

Please link to the riff on youtube (you can do this by pausing at the part of the song where the riff starts and right-clicking, then selecting "copy video URL at current time") to maximize clarity and learning.

This extremely common death metal riff is takes a set of intervals, eg a melody, and creates two permutations: One played in power chords, and one tremolo picked. This riff creates contrast through a simulated change in timbre. I'm not sure who originated this riff style, but I'd like to know.

The gallop riff was widely used by NWOBHM and speed metal bands. although uncommon in death metal, it still crops up occassionally, usually as a nod to influences. Contrary to popular beleif, gallop riffs do not consist of triplets but of two sixteenth notes and a quarter note, or any proportional arrangement thereof. The this rhythm is be played on a lower tone in the register, serving as rhythmic and harmonic groundwork for a bar or two of melody interspersed symmetrically between gallops.

The transmutation riff consists of two riffs, A and B. Riff A can be divided into two sub-riffs, A1 and A2. Subriff A2, at the end of riff A's repetition cycle, becomes the basis for riff B. Thus, riff A transmutes into riff B. This technique is popular with 'brutal' death metal bands. If you know how to describe this technique in formal theory, do tell.

That pedal tone riff is interesting. I think of sections like this one from Slayer as a more advanced version of it, where you have one melody made up of lower tones centered around the root interacting with a completely melody using the same scale but higher up. At the Gates did this a lot on their first two albums (particularly the second), but I can't think of any specifics right now. It's very baroque. I don't know what to call it, but it's one of my favorite of death metal's bag-o-tricks. Here's a particularly strange take on it from Morbid Angel.

The power-chord-to-tremolo phrase thing is OLDER THAN TIME ITSELF (to quote Dark Angel). Early Napalm Death used it a ton, and I'm pretty sure they got it from the more alienated fringe of hardcore. It's probably been around even longer than that. It's one of the most natural things to do on a guitar when you're writing riffs, or at least it is for me.

Interesting riff selections. Though the Slayer and Morbid Angel riffs you cited don't fit the pedal tone template per se, the concept is similar: a tone or series of tones serve as a foundation for a more complex series of tones higher in the register.

As for the Napalm Death song, I can't tell if they're playing tremolo or just playing the power chords faster, but the idea is there. I'll do some detective work on early grindcore/hardcore, or perhaps someone who specializes in that stuff can enlighten us.

For what it's worth, I have a penchant for mean-spirited Hellhammer styled riffs.

Personally I find it hard to classify 'riffs' in theoretical terms as they already contain melody, harmony, rhythm as well as dynamics/technique. More often I think of them as shapes within a structure. Some build up, some are expository. And black metal is even harder to define. The Beherit song, Sadomatic Rites is basically 4-5 sets of riffs played one after the other with each part building into the next without repeating. Burzum's Jesu død sounds like one massive riff, though it is helped by and consists of many.

Personally I find it hard to classify 'riffs' in theoretical terms as they already contain melody, harmony, rhythm as well as dynamics/technique. More often I think of them as shapes within a structure. Some build up, some are expository. And black metal is even harder to define. The Beherit song, Sadomatic Rites is basically 4-5 sets of riffs played one after the other with each part building into the next without repeating. Burzum's Jesu død sounds like one massive riff, though it is helped by and consists of many.

A better name for this thread would be 'Metal techniques'.

I agree that riffs, even those consisting of the same intervals and rhythms, can serve different ends depending on the context. However, just because penguins use their wings for swimming instead of flying, does that mean we shouldn't call them wings?

Black metal is interesting, because even though it has a smaller range of techniques, those techniques are used in structure with greater fluidity and convey a more significant spectrum of emotion.

This thread may be accused of missing the forest for the trees, but the inner sperg compels me.